Urban Art touristification: The case of Lisbon

Abstract

Urban Art is gradually assuming an increasingly significant role in the development of a city’s character, something which is often promoted by public institutions. This has been strongly instigated by the rhetoric of creative cities, present in the strategies for the urban development of many cities in recent years. The rising appreciation of this artistic movement and the recognition of the cultural and symbolic role it currently plays are accompanied by a growing offer of tourism services in this field, namely, through dozens of tours operated by multiple entities. The literature has, in fact, been paying some attention to this phenomenon of touristification of Urban Art. In this article, we draw on qualitative empirical material from an ongoing research project on Urban Art in the city of Lisbon. We consider the touristification of Urban Art in Lisbon to be a recent and still ongoing process involving several social actors with specific perspectives, strategies, actions and representations. We have concluded that there is currently a combination of social and economic factors favourable to the development of this process of touristification. This could not have happened without (a) a number of institutional initiatives, (b) local entrepreneurship ventures and (c) the development of a narrative shared by the different agents.